“Oklahoma” at 80!

Tuesday, March 7, 2023
7:00 pm

Categories

• Adult
• Featured

Oklahoma: “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!” – 80 years ago, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II brought their first collaboration to Broadway. How did this show change musical theater? And why is it still an international audience favorite today? We will pull back the curtain to reveal what went into the creation of Oklahoma! This is a Hybrid event, meeting in the Lower Level Meeting Room and via Zoom. Please email marylynn.becza@mmt.mainlib.org for the Zoom code.

This is the first part of our spring lecture series “Oklahoma! at 80” .

In 1943, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! opened on Broadway, and musical theater and Broadway would never be the same. Entertainment historian and Morristown resident John Kenrick offers a series of three multimedia talks on this landmark musical and its ongoing eight-decade legacy.

Our presenter: Popular speaker John Kenrick has worked in the theatre at every level from amateur to Broadway, eventually serving as personal assistant to six Tony Award winning producers, including the team behind the original production of Rent. He has taught musical theatre history courses at New York University’s Steinhardt School, The New School University, and Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. John’s books include Musical Theatre: A History, and he is featured in The Cambridge Companion to Operetta. He is the creator of the educational website Musicals101.com. One of his students put it this way: “He didn’t just make me laugh – he made me care.”